http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/124813

Published: 04.16.2006

Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Now, a Latino voice against immigration demonstrators
Ernesto Portillo Jr.
Bert Soto gets straight to the point. He's of Mexican descent and proud of it.
But in his mind, there's nothing to boast about regarding the recent immigration marches and rallies in Tucson and across the nation.
"It's disrespectful," said the 42-year-old Tucson native and West Side resident.
Instead of protesting U.S. government policies, Soto said, the protesters — many of whom were undocumented immigrants from Mexico — should take their protests to Mexico for its failure to provide jobs for its people.
After I wrote a series of columns on immigration, generally in support of the protests waged largely by Latinos, my editor suggested I write about other Latinos — those opposed to the protests.
It's a valid topic. So I contacted Soto, who has often written to disagree with my views on immigration.
He's a Republican, works in finance at a local credit union and grew up in a Mexican-American home. He has seen many Latino immigrants come to Tucson legally and wants all immigrants to do the same.
His paternal grandfather came from Sonora and his mother's family came from Mexico several generations ago.
While the recent protests have been portrayed as a new Latino civil rights movement, not all U.S. Latinos approve of the protests and agree with the reasons behind them. "The protesters do not represent most American-born Latinos," Soto said.
He's right, according to a 2005 survey of Latinos by Pew Hispanic Center.
"Although an overwhelming majority of Hispanics expresses positive attitudes toward immigrants, relatively few Hispanics favor increasing the flow of legal immigration from Latin America, and a significant minority, concentrated among native-born Latinos, is concerned that unauthorized migrants are hurting the economy," said the report.
Soto said he's not insensitive to people's desire to come to the United States, but believes they need to address their problems of poverty and joblessness in their home countries.
Soto said the undocumented immigrants who protested, demanding Congress provide a path to legalization, are circumventing the legal process.
"They essentially have broken the law," said Soto.
The perspective of America's 40 million Latinos on immigration reform is wide and diverse, as it is for the general public. "Attitudes among Latinos toward options in immigration policy reflect a variety of views on immigrants and their impact on the country as well as assessments of the specific pros and cons of individual measures," the Pew study said.
Latinos' views on immigration have taken a higher profile since the emergence of nationwide protests, which may be having an impact on the debate in Washington, D.C.
Recently, several top members of Congress have backed off their support of the more stringent House bill, which provoked the marches.
But Soto believes the protests will backfire and create resentment among the American public, which will tire of the demands of noncitizens.
Border enforcement should be the government's first and principal priority, Soto said. The government must build a barrier all along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. And he supports making illegal presence a felony.
This would send an unambiguous message that only legal immigration is acceptable, he said.
"If the signal isn't sent," Soto said, "we'll never get the point across."
● Ernesto Portillo Jr.'s column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach him at eportillo@azstarnet.com or at 573-4242. He appears on "Arizona Illustrated," KUAT-TV Channel 6, at 6:30 p.m. and midnight Fridays.